Tag Archives: OMG

I am sitting here, in shock, to be honest. Why? Because I made dinner without a recipe. Hell, I even went to the store for this without a real plan and ended up grabbing stuff on the fly. I often cook from scratch using just my imagination and it usually turns out absolutely delicious but tonight’s dinner stretched me beyond my comfort zone a bit in using an ingredient in a standard recipe. It was daring and I prayed like hell it would work out. It did – obviously. I had to stop at just one serving because it is the kind of dish in which you could easily over-indulge.

For additional nutritional value, I tossed in a can of quartered artichoke hearts which actually worked quite nicely to balance the dish.

I did not keep track of exact measurements of ingredients but I will do my best in recreating the recipe below because you HAVE TO MAKE THIS and then bask in the heaven that is Baked Gnocchi & Cheese (OH SO MUCH CHEESE). You HAVE TO…it’s a food coma-inducing meal.

Cut 1lbs of bacon into quarters. Cook in large deep saute pan over medium heat until crispy, place in a bowl lined with a paper towel to absorb fat. Let drain. Set pan aside. (If you’re the drinking sort – you can save the bacon fat, put it in a clean mason jar, add 1 cup of Vodka, cover, then let it sit overnight in the cabinet. Then put it in the freezer, let the fat freeze. Remove fat. Strain through tea filter, then coffee filter, then cheesecloth. Bacon Vodka. Boom.) Ahem. Where was I? Oh yes.

Large pot – fill with water, add a couple tablespoons of sea salt (kosher will do too), bring to a boil. Add Gnocchi. Once it starts floating, strain it. Put strainer (if you can) over the large pot to let the Gnocchi continue to drain while you start on the cheese sauce.

Chop garlic into fine pieces. Dice/chop onion as well.

Drain the bacon fat from large saute pan. Discard if you want or use it as recommended above. Add 3 tablespoons of butter to pan. Then add garlic. Let it saute for a few minutes before adding onion. Once onion starts to get translucent, add half of the gnocchi, place the other half on a clean plate. Pan fry gnocchi until it is golden brown, 4-5 minutes if you leave it alone and don’t stir it a lot. (Live and learn!) Remove pan fried gnocchi to colander you used to drain the gnocchi after boiling it. Add other half of gnocchi and pan fry until golden as well, removing to colander once complete. While you’re waiting for the gnocchi to pan fry, put 2 cups of milk in the microwave for 2 minutes.

Add 3 tablespoons of butter to pan. As it melts, add all spices – Cayenne, Paprika, Salt, (1/2 tsp or so), few turns of the pepper grinder. Using a wooden spoon, stir until spices and butter combine and turn a light caramel colour. Add flour. Stir until combined. Add slowly (and I mean SLOWLY), warmed milk. Whisk constantly as you’re adding it in order to avoid any creepy lumpage. You don’t want lumpy cheese sauce. Seriously. Trust me. EWWW. Stir constantly, and lower heat to low medium. Get your cheeses.

Open can of artichoke hearts, drain, and squeeze until no more liquid releases. Toss into cheese sauce along with bacon and pan fried gnocchi. Stir until combined and turn off burner, letting it gently simmer in remaining heat.

When I first started #PPDChat, I had no idea where it would go. Or if people would even want to talk about Postpartum Mood Disorders on Twitter.

Postpartum Mood & Anxiety Disorders are often discussed behind closed doors in hushed voices. It’s not the sort of thing you climb up to the rooftop and scream about. You don’t post a sign along with the “It’s a girl!” or “It’s a Boy!” saying “I have a Postpartum Mood & Anxiety Disorder!” No. It’s not like that at all.

It’s quietly survived, shoved to the back of the table, ignored, discarded as a topic of conversation.

Or at least it was.

Through the blessed advent of technology, more and more women are using their keyboards to raise their voices –detailing their experiences with Postpartum Mood & Anxiety Disorders. Husbands are sharing too –their survival of their partner’s struggle– and some, even their own struggle with depression or anxiety after a child joins their lives.

Postpartum Mood & Anxiety Disorders survivors and fighters are not so silent any longer.

Then today, we got really loud and this happened:

Yes. That’s humble #ppdchat, trending. On Twitter. Twitter, where there are millions of tweets every day, thousands of tweets per second.

I don’t know what #PPDChat did to deserve a spot on the trending list – we were just having our weekly moderated chat at 1pm ET. And then BAM. On the list.

Whatever algorithm gods saw fit to smile upon us today, thank you. Thank you for shining your light on a humble little chat dedicated to destroying the stigma and misinformation of Postpartum & Mood Disorders –dedicated to allowing women across the globe to connect and feel a little less alone in their dark vortex of pain.

But most of all, a HUGE THANK YOU to every single person who has ever participated in a chat. To every single person who has ever said thank you or encouraged me to keep on keeping on with my work with #ppdchat. Every second of it is a blessing and seeing the community in action is mind-blowing –every time. Even to those who only read along with the chat, thank you too for following us. Because without participation, without support, this, trending on Twitter for just a short bit, would never have been possible.

Thank you. Thank you all for raising your voices and silencing the stigma and misinformation – for supporting each other – and for being AWESOME.

A Note

Please note any information found on this blog is not meant to replace that of a qualified professional.
We encourage partnership with your physician, psychiatrist, and therapist in the treatment of mood disorder.
The information found here is educational and anecdotal and should be reviewed with a professional prior to implementation.